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Wednesday, 10 October 2018

Finnair forced to wet-lease Air Italy A330 to cover Miami and Chicago routes

One of the leading European airlines, Finnairhas confirmed it will be wet-leasing an Airbus A330 aircraft from Air Italy for its Chicago and Miami routes for a limited period of time.

The short period is estimated to be from 12th October until 31st October and Finnair is having to hire in the Air Italy aircraft as one of its own long-haul aircraft was damaged at Chicago airport on 25th September when a high loader accidentally hit it.

In order to continue to operate the Chicago and Miami routes the airline has had to wet-lease in the A330 from Air Italy, while the damaged aircraft gets repaired. "The aircraft damage in Chicago was very unfortunate. With high-quality wet lease from Air Italy, we can continue operating our Chicago and Miami flights and offer our customers a smooth travel experience regardless of the aircraft change," says Jaakko Schildt, Chief Operating Officer, Finnair.

Air Italy aircraft and crew will be operating Finnair flights to Chicago and Miami as follows:

All flights between Helsinki and Chicago (AY09/AY10) from Oct 12 to Oct 29. Finnair has four weekly return flights between Helsinki and Chicago, the flight days are Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday.Five return flights between Helsinki and Miami (AY07/AY08) on the following dates: Oct 14, Oct 16, Oct 21, Oct 23 and Oct 30.

The wet-leased aircraft from Air Italy has 24 full-flat seats in business class and 232 seats in economy class, all with a seat-back in-flight entertainment system. While the flight is operated by Air Italy crews, Finnair will also post two cabin crew members to each flight, to try and ensure Finnair standards are applied to the in-flight service. However, because of the change in carrier and standard, Finnair is allowing customers to cancel their flight or change the departure date free of charge.

Chief Aviation Correspondent.
Jason has many years experience of the aviation and media industries. He has written numerous articles, reports and features for various publications and is the author of a number of both nonfiction and fiction books.

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Meet the team

Jason Shaw.

Jason Shaw's love of the aviation industry started at a young age when he used to watch the whirlybirds of Bristow Helicopters coming and going from the garden of his Surrey childhood home. Since those days he's worked in a number of key areas within the aviation industry from airlines, travel agents, holiday companies and product selection to reporting on it for local radio and making video travel brochures.

Jason is also an experienced broadcaster, having presented on radio, television, corporate videos and video travel brochures. He's an avid writer and written a number of books, articles, features and reports. He also loves to travel and his favourite destinations include Port Douglas, Singapore and Copenhagen.

Joshua Jordan.

Josh loves to travel and has a passionate interest in the airline industry. He's worked in both travel and the media for a number of years. His voice can often be heard on Internet-based radio stations as well and the odd commercial! The destination he calls his favourite is - New York.

Adam Shaw

Adam is the youngest member of the team, no relation to Jason and like the rest of the team, he has a keen interest in airlines, aircraft and aviation. His favourite destination is Prague and has just started taking flying lessons.